SunPower just announced that they are forming a joint venture with thin-film crystal LCD manufacturer AU Optronics Corp. Per the agreement, the two companies will jointly own and operate the 1.4 gigawatt third solar cell fabrication plant (called Fab 3) that SunPower is in the process of building in Malaysia. By bringing AUO into the joint venture, SunPower plans to reduce costs for the project and have it completed more quickly.
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Credit Suisse demonstrates once again why analyst estimates and ratings are for the most part worthless. Rarely are analysts ahead of the curve and Credit Suisse is no exception. They are out this morning maintaining their Neutral and Outperform ratings, but cutting price targets well after these stocks have plummeted to new lows. I believe solar stocks are close to bottoming out, based on some minor capitulation moves seen yesterday. Many are ripping higher again … Read the rest
No doubt today’s action was ugly if you were on the long side of the trade and taking a look at the Up & Down Movers at the left tells the story. That’s a might lengthy list of green stocks down with heavy volume today, but there were bright spots provided in some solar stocks.
Despite a day when the overall market was down 4% with heavy volume, eight solar stocks finished in the green … Read the rest
Street Insider was out with a research note from iSuppli today forecasting big growth in solar leader Germany ahead of the feed-in-tariff reduction in July which will have companies scrambling to complete installations. That’s not too much of a surprise, but the firm also sees significant growth after the tariff reduction, particularly in rooftop solar systems.
They are forecasting 6.6GW of solar installations for 2010 in Germany which is a 70% increase over last year, … Read the rest
Deutsche Bank has met with Sunpower (SPWRA) management and according to Street Insider, is still comfortable with its Buy rating as the stock continues to slide to new all time lows. The firm maintains the $25 price target as well.
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“We believe there is great (and unrealized) value in the company’s downstream business. We believe that companies with these business models are far better positioned; there … Read the rest
Several analyst ratings announcements and notes on Sunpower (SPWRA) following its earnings report to cover this morning… Hat tip to Street Insider for the analyst comments.
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Citi maintains its Sell rating and lowered the price target from $15 to $12. “In the very near-term, SPWRA has dramatically underperformed peers like First Solar (FSLR) (~3500bps in the past 7 weeks), thus hard to be overly negative even … Read the rest
SunPower (SPWRA) reported mixed results after the bell today missing analyst estimates on the EPS side (reporting .05 vs estimate of .08), but matched the revenue number at $347 million. Compared to the year ago quarter, the results look darn good because that was a terrible quarter in which the company reported a loss for the first time in several years. Sequentially, it was well below the .47/share and $548 million they reported in Q4, … Read the rest
SunPower has just unveiled a new product, the SunPower Oasis™ Power Plant, a modular solar power block that can scale from 1-megawatt installations to large central station power plants. The power blocks are shipped preassembled for quick and easy installation and were designed with future grid interconnection needs in mind. This is the first product of its type ever released, and SunPower believes it will help utilities deploy new utility-scale solar projects more quickly and … Read the rest
Auriga has reversed its call after last week’s selling, upgrading SunPower (SPWRA) from Sell to Hold. “Shares of SPWRA are now trading below our price target of $15 and are essentially 1.0x book value of $14.26.” The firm expects the company’s presentation following its earnings report tomorrow to be optimistically bullish. While demand for solar continues to improve, the still believe that margins will erode due to increasing competition and maintain the $15 price target. … Read the rest
SunPower has just announced that it has been selected to build a 1.3MW solar power plant in Italy for Solar Green Energy-SGE, a JV between EDF subsidiary EDF-EN Italia and Italian project developer Emmecidue. The plant, which is to be located in the Lazio region, will consist of 96-cell, E 18 / 305 solar panels and SunPower T0 Tracker systems.
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In a press release, Gian Maria … Read the rest